


Removed again, painfully

by SyconSenti



Series: Hermitbrine AU [5]
Category: Hermitbrine au - Fandom, Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, hermitbrine au, what is chronological order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26198248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyconSenti/pseuds/SyconSenti
Summary: The Devs have caught wind of Hermitcraft's newest member, and their knee jerk reaction is not the greatest...Set in a time skip in where it is now current time, Herobrine has a small established home, and the server just updated. Except 1.16.2 has -Removed Herobrine in it once again. Poor guy.
Series: Hermitbrine AU [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097114
Comments: 19
Kudos: 187





	Removed again, painfully

_ \- Removed Herobrine _

Herobrine's eyes flew open as a splitting pain stabbed through his body. He convulsed, then fell off of the bed he was sleeping on. His shoulder slammed into the hard birch floor, shocking the paralysis out of his throat and enabling him to scream. And scream he did, startling a Villager and several bees awake. Three bees buzzed their way over to him while the villager hopped out of bed to see what had happened.

Herobrine curled into a tight ball as another wave of pain washed over him. It felt like the very molecules if his body were being torn apart from one another. A quick check of his hand revealed the outline to be undefined, like his very body was glitching in and out of existence. He understood now.

It… it happened again. An update. They tried to get rid of him again.

The Villager kneeled down beside him, looking very concerned.

"You okay? What happened?" They asked. 

"Removed… again… hurts…" Herobrine managed to choke out. The Villager looked around and spotted his communicator on the chest, then grabbed it and handed it to him. He shakily turned it on and typed into the chat.

**<!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞&͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗ > h̢̳̳̟̹̪̪͙ͮ̇̂̓ͩͦ͜ͅe̸̡͖͙̻͇̓ͪ͛ͭļ̷̪̝̹̤ͤ̋̉͑̍͂̾̍ͯ͝p̴̷̨̬̳͓̞͆͂̀̌̋͒ͦ̈́ ̢̌ͨ̆̍͞͏̻̠͈͓m̛̹̞̙̖̘̞̥̠͚̍ͣ͆̐̆͑̽̋ẻ͎̣͙͓̯͎͆̈́ͧ͆͠**

**<!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞&͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗ > xi̸͓͔͖̲̋̈̄̎ͯ̀ͧͦs̲̮̣̝͇̟̰̜̈ͧ́͠m̴̧̗̂͋̽͌̊̃ͬa̔̎ͩ̾̿҉͎̟̯̩̖̜̦̼**

**<!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞&͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗ > hű͂̍ͩ͆ͭ̓͏̣͇r̺͔͒ͣ͋̕͢t̡̺̟̪̣̘͕̖ͥ̀͒ͣͧͧ̔͆͜**

**<!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞&͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗ > p̙̲ͬ͟ͅl̠̻̳͎̝͚̫͚ͦ͗͂ę̴̧͉̪̘̹̙̫̙ͪ̏͂̉̿ͩ̋̽͒a̴̘̋̂s̡̳̩̗͔͉̮͚ͩ̇ͦ̀͌ͩ̾̓̚ͅ**

Herobrine stared at the screen, waiting for a reply. However, the pain soon intensified, forcing him to drop the device. The Villager sat down, holding out one of the bees to him, however they pulled it back when Herobrine did not react to the offer. Minutes dragged by until the communicator finally beeped.

**Chat is back online. Thank you for your patience. Your queued messages have now been sent.**

**< cubfan135> 1.16.2 hype everybody!**

**< Etho> first**

**< Falsesymmetry> first**

**< Goodtimewithscar> You are welcome for the horizontal chains everybody. This is my first gift to you as Mayor.**

**< Keralis1> update now?**

**< xisumavoid> chat should come back any second**

**< ZombieCleo> weeeeeeereee baaaaack**

**< xisumavoid> oh dear**

**< xisumavoid> are you alright over there?**

**< Tango> that doesn't look good?**

**<!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞&͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗ > n͕̗͖̺͈͎̜͊̿ ͚̟ͧ͡o͖̻̗̾͘̕**

**< xisumavoid> sit tight I will be right there**

Herobrine dropped the communicator, closing his eyes as the world started to swim. He felt sick, like he was about to vomit, but was too paralyzed to even gag. Faintly, he heard the murmurs of his Villager friend trying to talk to someone, but…

\--

As soon as the garbled messages appeared on screen, X had immediately gone to his portal. He'd had worries that updating the system would negatively affect Herobrine in some way.

Soon enough he had arrived at his destination, and stepping through the portal revealed the air to be full of agitated bees milling around. He quickly climbed the stairs leading to Herobrine's bed, and found him on the floor with a Villager sitting next to him. It got to it's feet and made some noises at him.

"Yeah, yeah, something's wrong. Hey, Herobrine? Are you there?" Xisuma kneeled down and gently shook his friend's shoulder. Herobrine squeaked, but otherwise remained still. X sat down then opened the admin console, quickly digging into Herobrine's profile. His heart stopped when he saw the usually glitchy characters in the file getting erased, then coming back at almost the same time. What was going on?

The Villager hrrm'd, announcing the arrival of two other hermits: Keralis, obviously worried for his friend, and, for some reason, Etho. Other than their brief meeting at the beginning of the season, Xisuma had not seen the two interact at all, so the reason for his presence was beyond him. 

"Oh no, what's going on with Herri?" Keralis dropped down beside Herobrine, his huge eyes full of fear. Etho skirted around them and sat on the bed, crossing his legs and resting his chin on his fist while inspecting Herobrine closely.

"I don't know. It's like the system is trying to delete him, but he's just being restored at the same time." As if on cue, Herobrine's body glitched out, briefly fading and resolidifying in quick succession. Etho raised an eyebrow at the sight, then shifted a bit as if he was deep in thought. Keralis gasped and leaned over, trying to elicit a response but failing.

Etho took out his communicator and began typing, while X dove back into the console to try and find a cause for the glitching. Minutes dragged by, with several bees flying over to them to check the group out before leaving again. Then, yet another figure stumbled in through the portal. X looked over to see the haggard form of Doc laying on the grass. Two bees instantly floated over and landed on his shoulders. Slowly, Doc got to his feet, leaning against the portal frame for support, then he wobbled over to the stairs and began to climb them. Etho went over to him to offer support, which he grumpily accepted.

"Why the hell did you tell me to come here man?" Doc rasped. Etho pointed over to Herobrine wordlessly. At that, Doc sighed.

"Yeah. I understand, but I'm really not in a good place to be worried about others right n-"

"No, you've had this happen to you right?" Etho cut him off. Xisuma blinked and turned around.

"You have?"

"Uh… I…" Doc squinted at Herobrine, then closed his eyes.

"Yeah."

"What is it?" Xisuma asked. 

"He got removed. Or, well, they tried to. I guess the Devs caught wind of him." Doc limped over and sat down heavily on the bed, Etho plopping down right beside him. He sighed, then flopped over a minute later. X took in his appearance with sympathy. Doc had been subject to a rather rough time recently, and evidently was still recovering from it. 

"How do we fix it then?" He asked hesitantly. Doc shrugged in response.

"It wears off in a few hours. However it takes a lot of energy out of you. Hero's going to be weak for a few days." Doc smiled as his eyes slipped shut. Etho blinked and poked the cyborg's shoulder.

"Huh. Must be super tired." He commented as he pulled the covers over Doc. "But yeah. When Doc got removed, he was much the same way, described it as like every atom in his body was being torn apart. We couldn't do anything until the glitching had stopped, which took humm… 3 and a half hours. So."

"Oh no…" Keralis looked down at his hands helplessly while Etho nodded.

"Uh huh. I think Hero here will like it if we stay though. Doc did." He added. Xisuma sat down on the floor, sighing in resignation. 

"I was worried about this… I'm sorry, Herobrine." He murmured, bowing his head in despair.

"Guess we have to send a few very choice words to the Devs." Etho let himself fall backwards onto the bed, letting out a muffled exclamation as a large bee landed on his face. He flailed out slightly, then accepted his fate.

Eventually, after the hours had dragged by, the glitching ceased. Herobrine was sweating and gasping for air, and Keralis quickly gathered him into his arms. It wasn't long until he was fast asleep, obviously exhausted from the ordeal. Xisuma was sat, constantly monitoring logs and reports from the system to see if any other harmful behaviour became apparent. However, other than the glitchiness from Herobrine's profile, everything else was remaining stable. He also busied himself in answering other concerned hermit's questions. 

Etho, who had by now become a pile of yellow and black fuzz, was also asleep. The sight made Xisuma realize just how tired he was, and he found himself letting out a yawn. 

"C'mon, can't sleep, server needs monit-"

The bright morning light filtered in through his visor. X blinked, peering down at the 8 bees bundled in his lap. Oops.

He turned his gaze over to Keralis and Herobrine, who had become thoroughly entangled during the night, then back to the bed where Doc and Etho were both peacefully asleep, Etho using one of Doc's legs and a bee as a pillow. The Villager was also close by, and not left out of the bee infestation. It seemed every bee that Herobrine had was somewhere in the pile of hermit and mob. 

Xisuma stretched, spilling two of the insects off of his shoulders. They crawled around until they had found a cranny between Keralis and Herobrine to squeeze into, leaving only the fluffy butt sticking out. X chuckled at the sight as he slowly stood, brushing the rest of the bees off of himself and checking the logs from the night. Other than a handful of gibberish letters typed by insectoid feet in the command line, everything was as normal as it could bee. Any out of place glitching was gone from Herobrine's profile, only the usual shifting characters remaining.

The admin did notice with a jolt of worry that some of the numbers seemed rather low compared to usual. They were almost at the level Herobrine had displayed in the archived logs from before he'd met them. And back then… let's just say the poor guy was not in the best shape. Removal must be  _ exhausting. _

X slowly directed the displaced bees into the bundle before slowly going down the stairs, sighing when several followed him anyway. However they simply happily buzzed away to the flowers, eager to start their day. 

"Morning sashwammyvoid!" Keralis's huge eyes were blinking down at him. Xisuma smiled and waved.

"Good morning my friend!" 

"Morning buzz buzz!" Keralis went on to greet every bee that was around him, earning a chuckle from X. He still felt an attachment to the fluffy bugs, even though he had switched his outfit to resemble a strider a few weeks back. However, his own liking of the bees was nothing compared to Herobrine. The gentle cryptid had made himself thoroughly at home with all of the fuzz. Such a display of kindness was heartwarming to see, and it made Xisuma all the more angry that the Devs had once again tried to remove him from the world. A chilling thought struck him all of a sudden.  _ Again. _ Herobrine had been through this process many times before, and as far as X knew, he'd always been either alone, or actively being hunted when it happened.

Fuck, the guy can't catch a break.

Xisuma found himself back at the top of the stairs, watching Keralis whisper things to Herobrine who appeared to be awake. He went over and kneeled down, catching both of their attention.

"Morning Hero! How are you feeling?" X asked him with a smile. Herobrine did not answer verbally, but the strained look he gave X told him everything he needed to know.

"I appear to have a small message to deliver in the near future." He said sternly whilst turning away. Keralis watched him leave, somewhat frightened of the sudden dangerous tone the admin had acquired. However he quickly dispelled the thought and focused back on Herobrine, letting his friend relax into his embrace. By now all of the bees had gone away to work, but every now and then one or two popped back to inspect them. Eventually, Herobrine managed to stop himself from shaking, and let himself go limp. He felt safe within the grasp of Keralis, despite how oddly cold the bug eyed man naturally was. After all, Keralis was one of the first to show him genuine kindness, and certainly had not stopped like everyone else eventually did. Then again, none of the hermits had. All of them were truthful in their love and support. Even those who had been less sure of him at first dropped the uncertainty after a while.

He found himself smiling into Keralis's safety jacket. The builder had been whispering things to him, most of which he'd struggled to understand. However the tone was soothing, allowing his heart rate to finally go back to it's normal level. It was around that time that Doc suddenly sneezed, startling both of them, waking Etho and evidently himself. So much for giving his heart a rest.

"Good morning Grandma." Etho yawned, getting another surprise as his pillow suddenly flew away.

"Mmmnrnin." Doc grumbled back. Etho looked over to Keralis.

"I think I'm going to help this old lady back home. You good?"

"Yeyeh!" Keralis nodded. Etho smiled, presumably, then hooked his arms under Doc to pull him off the bed.

"Come on Grossmother, I'm taking you home."

Doc leant heavily on Etho as they slowly made their way to the portal, and Keralis kept his eyes on them until they disappeared. Then he looked back down at Herobrine and sighed sadly.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry… D-didn't wan… wan...w...want... to c-cause… this…" Herobrine stuttered. Keralis hugged him tighter in response, making him squeak in surprise.

"No way! No way! You are not the problem Herri! Why are you sorry? You're hurting!" A tear formed in his eye, and he tried to blink it away before he began crying for real. Alas, soon they were streaming down his face. The world became so blurred that he never noticed Xisuma returning.

"Oh dear, are you okay my friend?" 

Keralis nodded, but Xisuma stepped away to grab some things to help him before sitting down besides the two. He offered Keralis a bottle of water, which was taken and downed quickly enough. 

"Messages have been sent. Hopefully they'll get back to me. How are you doing Hero?"

Herobrine murmured something that sounded like nothing in particular. He too appeared to have been crying a bit, although most of the wetness on his hair had come from Keralis.

"B-better…" He finally whispered somewhat audibly. "Thank you…"

"I'm sorry for this. I didn't know they would… ugh." Xisuma bowed his head in shame.

"Not first time…" came the quiet reply. 

"I know! That makes this situation so much worse!" Xisuma's sudden raised voice made Herobrine flinch and a nearby bee to zoom away. He cringed at the reaction and made himself look smaller.

"Sorry, didn't mean to… it's… you don't deserve this pain… I just… it's so unfair…"

There was a sudden weight against him, and X blinked down to see Herobrine had shifted away from Keralis and was now leaning on his shoulder. Keralis quickly shuffled over to join them.

They remained locked together until Herobrine himself wiggled free, and then they all broke apart. Xisuma held out an arm for Herobrine to cling to as he tried to stand, then smiled at both of them. Keralis grinned back, while Herobrine simply nodded slightly. 

"Want to take the day off and come over?" X offered. 

"Yeah!" Keralis enthusiastically agreed. Herobrine made a noise that sounded like an agreement, and Xisuma simply stooped down to lift the weakened cryptid onto his shoulder. He looked a bit puzzled at the action, but did not resist, instead whispering something to the nearby Villager who hrrm'd with a shrug in response. 

"Okay."

Herobrine let his head drop to rest against Xisuma's back and closed his eyes. He felt himself get taken through a portal, but disregarded the usual unpleasantness that came with it. It was nothing compared to what he'd just been through.

"Wakey wakey Herricopter!"

Herobrine startled awake to find himself swaddled in soft fabric. He looked around at the unfamiliar scene with rising panic, only managing to stop himself when he met Keralis's huge gaze. Keralis closed his eyes and smiled warmly at him.

"This is my house! I would have told you when we got here but… well…" He giggled. Herobrine let out a breath he'd been holding, and rolled onto his side. He snuggled down into the thick bedsheets, then yawned, feeling the pull back to sleep. The presence of Keralis close by and Xisuma a little further away kept him grounded, and he thought about how lucky he was to have stumbled into the home of such a caring group.

For the first time, Herobrine was not alone, and also not in danger. He could rest to regain energy without the risk of being killed, and his friends would take care of him no matter what. 

Despite the dull ache leftover from his ordeal, he actually felt…  _ good _ .


End file.
